News and updates

Last night, the House passed, 415-2, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 (H.R. 6074) to provide emergency supplemental funding in response to the novel coronavirus. The Senate is expected to pass today.

The package is $8.3 billion, which lawmakers released hours before the vote, and it has $7.8 billion in new funding for programs and agencies within the HHS, Small Business Administration, and State Department. Additionally, the legislation includes a $500 million provision related to telehealth.

The Senate is expected to consider the legislation today.

The President has said he will sign the measure.

The bill has:

• $2.2 billion, available through September 2022, for the CDC, including:
  • $950 million in grants and cooperative agreements for state/local surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity, infection control, mitigation, communications, and other preparedness and response ($475 million that would be available/allocated within 30 days of enactment).
  • At least $300 million for global disease detection and emergency response.
  • $300 million for the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund.
  • The ability for CDC to use such funds to support grants for construction, alteration, or renovation of non-Federally owned facilities to improve state/local preparedness and response capability.
  • Additional funding for existing public health preparedness grants (that should be funded at not less than 90% of previous funding levels).
• $836 million, available through September 2024, for the NIH, including:
  • $826 million for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus domestically or internationally.
  • $10 million transferred from NIAID to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for worker-based training to prevent and reduce exposure of hospital employees and other first responders.
• $3.1 billion, available through September 2024,  for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund to support, among other activities:
  • Development and purchase of necessary countermeasures and vaccines.
  • Purchase of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and necessary medical supplies, including for potential deposit in the Strategic National Stockpile (with an additional $300 million in contingency funding to purchase additional products if needed).
  • Grants for construction, alteration, or renovation of non-Federally owned facilities to improve state/local preparedness and response capability.
• $61 million, available until expended, for the Food and Drug Administration to support:
  • Development of medical countermeasures and vaccines.
  • Advanced manufacturing for medical products.
  • Monitoring of medical supply chains.
• Authority for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to waive, under the public health emergency declaration for the novel coronavirus, certain current telehealth requirements by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
• ~$2.5 billion (distributed around) for State, CDC and USAID for international support and response to COVID-19.